The Kremlin expressed strong approval on Sunday for US President Donald Trump's newly unveiled National Security Strategy, which notably omits designating Russia as a direct threat and instead critiques European powers as facing inevitable decline—a perspective that aligns closely with Moscow's longstanding worldview. Unveiled on December 4, the 33-page document articulates Trump's "flexible realism" doctrine, advocating a revival of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine to assert exclusive US influence over the Western Hemisphere while signaling a desire for renewed strategic stability with Russia.

In an interview with state television correspondent Pavel Zarubin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov highlighted the strategy's resonance with Russian assessments, stating, "The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision." He particularly welcomed the pledge to end the "perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance," viewing it as an encouraging development amid ongoing tensions over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The document also prioritises negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine as a "core" US interest, a stance that contrasts sharply with previous administrations' portrayal of Moscow as a destabilising aggressor since its 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Peskov tempered his optimism with a cautionary note, attributing potential obstacles to what he termed the US "deep state"—a shadowy network of entrenched officials allegedly resistant to Trump's reforms and committed to challenging the post-Cold War order. This rhetoric echoes Trump's own frequent allusions to bureaucratic opposition, though critics dismiss it as an unfounded conspiracy theory employed to consolidate executive authority. Peskov's remarks to the TASS news agency further praised the shift toward cooperation on strategic stability issues, marking a positive departure from years of adversarial labelling.

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The strategy's harsh assessment of Europe, warning of "civilizational erasure" due to factors like immigration policies, declining birthrates, and suppression of political dissent, has elicited alarm from senior officials in major European capitals. Long reliant on US military backing through NATO, European leaders have voiced repeated concerns that Trump's "America First" approach signals a potential abandonment, exacerbating fears of diminished transatlantic solidarity at a time when the continent grapples with economic stagnation and security dilemmas posed by Russia's actions in Ukraine.

As the Trump administration pushes for a Ukraine peace framework amid stalled negotiations, the document's emphasis on non-interventionism and economic reciprocity—particularly with China—underscores a broader realignment that prioritises US domestic growth and hemispheric dominance over global alliance-building. With bilateral ties at a crossroads, the Kremlin's endorsement raises questions about the trajectory of US-Russia relations and the implications for a Europe increasingly perceived as vulnerable and isolated.

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